How do you define community radio? Why is radio so powerful for human rights work? How is radio connected to economic, social, cultural rights? How is radio connected to civil and political rights?
Share your reactions to these questions and/or add new questions by replying to this theme-comment (or a participant's comment).
UNESCO and others have developed a definition for Community Radio. AMARC (the world wide association of community radio stations) also has its definition at amarc.org Basically community radio is a not for profit volunteer based and community owned and community run radio station. Not for profit doesn't mean that it can't make a profit from ads or sponsorships, it just means that any income made on radio is reinvested in the station after paying costs and not given to the stock owners or the administrative board.
Thanks, Daoud, for starting this conversation about community radio and what defines it. As I was reading a publication by femLINKpacific titled Empowering Communities, Informing Policy: The Potential of Community Radio, I came across a nice quote from the AMARC defining community radio:
"When radio fosters the participation of citizens and defends their interests; when it reflects the tastes of the majority and makes good humour and hope its main purpose; when it truly informs; when it helps resolve the thousand and one problems of daily life; when all ideas are debated in its programs and all opinions are respected; when cultural diversity is stimulated over commercial homogeneity; when women are main players in communication and not simply a pretty voice or a publicity gimmick; when no type of dictatorship is tolerated, not even the musical dictatorship of the big recording studios; when everyone's words fly without discrimination or censorship, that is community radio."
What do you think community radio is?
I am really enjoyng the discussions that have started around community radio. Thanks Daoud for starting off. In Ghana, there is the Ghana Community Radio Netwok (GCRN) which is made up of all on-air community radio stations. The network has tried to enhance the AMARC definition. Community radio is thus:
Radio that is about, for, by and of a specific, marginalized community, whose ownership and management is representative of that community; which pursues a participatory development agenda, and which is non-profit, non-partisan and non-sectarian.
There are 4 basic elements in this definition and they must exist to make community radio what it is. We could discuss this further in detail.